Interest in technology for older adults is driven by multiple converging trends: the rapid pace of technological development; the unprecedented growth of the aging population in the United States and worldwide; the increase in the number and survival of persons with disability; the growing and unsustainable costs of caring for the elderly people; and the increasing interest on the part of business, industry, and government agencies in addressing health care needs with technology. These trends have contributed to the strong conviction that technology can play an important role in enhancing quality of life and independence of older individuals with high levels of efficiency, potentially reducing individual and societal costs of caring for the elderly people. The purpose of this "Forum" position article is to integrate what we know about older adults and technology systems in order to provide direction to this vital enterprise. We define what we mean by technology for an aging population, provide a brief history of its development, introduce a taxonomy for characterizing current technology applications to older adults, summarize research in this area, describe existing development and evaluation processes, identify factors important for the acceptance of technology among older individuals, and recommend future directions for research in this area.

Advancing the Aging and Technology Agenda in Gerontology

Profiling Teachers’ Readiness for Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Who’s Ready?

EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework.

In the information and knowledge society, where technology develops rapidly and penetrates deeply into our lives, the discussion about digital competence has become a hot topic today. After the emergence of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and with its huge impact on the education industry, the concern about digital competence has reached a new height. This systematic literature review uses Web of science and Scopus as databases to store and analyze the existing research on digital competence in higher education settings. The purpose of this review is to provide the scholar community with a current overview of digital competence research from 2015 to 2021 in the context of higher education regarding the definition of digital competence, dimensions used to evaluate digital competence, research purposes, methodologies, and results and limitations. Major findings include that the majority of publications cited both research and EU policy in describing the definition of digital competence. The review indicates that most university students and teachers have a basic level of digital competence. Besides, the institutions of higher education are encouraged to focus on the development students and teachers’ digital competence, create relevant learning strategies and use appropriate tools to improve the quality of education.

Digital competence in higher education research: A systematic literature review

In today's organisations and politics, there is a growing awareness of the gap between existing and needed digital competencies of the workforce to master the challenges of the digitalised future at work. Nevertheless, no comprehensive framework or definition of digital competencies at work has been proposed so far. Our aim is to offer a holistic view and broaden the scope of the concept of digital competencies, thereby focussing on applications at work. We combine diverse methods to integrate different perspectives on digital competencies. By conducting an extensive literature review about definitions and frameworks of digital competencies that might be applicable at work, we provide an overview of the current state of the art in research on digital competencies. Additionally, eleven half-structured interviews based on the critical incidents technique (CIT) were conducted to gain insights into the perspectives of professionals with expertise in digitalisation processes and digital competencies. Subsequently, researchers with different educational backgrounds clustered the results from both approaches and agreed on twenty-five dimensions that constitute digital competencies for white-collar workers with office jobs, encompassing a large variety of knowledge, skills, and abilities. The results of this research indicate that even though there is overlapping content, each perspective adds unique content to the concept of digital competencies at work. By creating a coherent and detailed framework and a definition, our research enhances the applicability of professional learning and development of digital competencies at work.

Digital competencies: A review of the literature and applications in the workplace

The European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, also known as DigComp, offers a tool to improve citizens’ digital competence. DigComp was first published in 2013 and has become a reference for many digital competence initiatives at both European and Member State levels. This document introduces DigComp 2.0. It constitutes phase 1 of the update of the framework which focuses on the conceptual reference model, new vocabulary and streamlined descriptors. The current document also gives examples of how DigComp is used at the European, national and regional levels.

DigComp 2.0: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. Update Phase 1: the Conceptual Reference Model.

DigComp 2.1 is a further development of the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. Based on the reference conceptual model published in DigComp 2.0, we present now 8 proficiency levels and examples of use applied to the learning and employment field.

DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens with eight proficiency levels and examples of use

Deployment and use of technological services for informal carers is still limited, mainly due to users' low digital skills, the lack of demonstrated business cases, and the poor evidence of the impact and sustainability of these services. The CARICT project aimed to collect evidence-based results on the impact of ICT-enabled domiciliary care services, and to make policy recommendations to develop, scale and replicate them in the European Union. The methodology was based on a mapping of 52 ICT-based services for informal carers developed in Europe, and a cross–analysis of 12 of these initiatives to get data on their impacts, drivers, business models, success factors, and challenges. The main results show that there is a wide range of successful, not very costly and beneficial examples of ICT-based support for carers across Europe. The cross-analysis indicated that these services had positive impacts on the quality of life of elderly people and informal carers, the quality of care and the financial sustainability of the health and social systems. The data also confirm that policy at European, national, regional and local levels can promote the successful development, implementation and transferability of these services through funding, policy leadership and by promoting stronger cooperation among stakeholders including end-users, mainly from the third sector and informal carers, to create a new value chain in the provision of long-term care. These findings help to achieve the objectives of European policy defined by the 2020 Strategy, and more specifically the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) and the European Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing (EIP AHA)

Can Technology-based Services support Long-term Care Challenges in Home Care? Analysis of Evidence from Social Innovation Good Practices across the EU: CARICT Project Summary Report

This report collects six policy lessons to support public authorities at all levels of the EU Member States for the adequate implementation and use of new technologies in the field of long-term care service provision for older people. These policy lessons have been obtained through the ICT-AGE research project carried out by the JRC-IPTS and funded by DG EMPL, based on the cross-analysis of good practices of technology-enabled services to help older people live independently at home. These lessons are aimed to benefit the public long-term care authorities, to modernise their social protection systems in the field of long-term care, ensuring effectiveness, adequacy and sustainability. They can enable the Member States to carry out the actions and recommendations set out in the 2013 European Commission policy on Social Investment for Growth and Cohesion (SIP) and to implement the country-specific recommendations of the European Semester. The report also provides to the targeted public authorities with different existing instruments with those the European Union could help them to implement these policy lessons.

Technology-enabled services for older people living at home independently: Lessons for public long-term care authorities in the EU Member States

This report shows the role played by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in supporting the employability and integration of immigrants in Europe in three European countries, framed in their migration history, migration policies, integration policy and levels of integration of migrants in the country. This study complements the findings obtained in the report entitled "ICT for the employability and integration of immigrants in the European Union: Results from a survey in three Member States". The research found that age, education, employment status and type of occupation are drivers of digital inequalities; ICTs constitute an important resource for employability and integration of immigrants in the three countries, and specific groups of immigrants such as older and less educated are isolated from the digital world, and that immigrants they are not making more advanced uses of ICTs. Policy strategies go toward increasing access and the digital literacy of isolated groups and in particular for newly arrived migrants, as to provide on-line access to relevant information and on-line services for migrants through user friendly multi-lingual websites.

ICT for the employability and integration of immigrants in the European Union: A Qualitative Analysis of a Survey in Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Spain

Carretero Gomez Stephanie

Papers

DigComp 2.0: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. Update Phase 1: the Conceptual Reference Model.

DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens with eight proficiency levels and examples of use

Can Technology-based Services support Long-term Care Challenges in Home Care? Analysis of Evidence from Social Innovation Good Practices across the EU: CARICT Project Summary Report

Technology-enabled services for older people living at home independently: Lessons for public long-term care authorities in the EU Member States

ICT for the employability and integration of immigrants in the European Union: A Qualitative Analysis of a Survey in Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Spain